Editing Sri Aurobindo (section)

=== Importance of the Upanishads ===
Although Sri Aurobindo was familiar with the most important lines of thought in Western philosophy, he did not acknowledge their influence on his own writings.<ref>''Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo'', p. 106</ref> He wrote that his philosophy "was formed first by the study of the [[Upanishads]] and the Gita … They were the basis of my first practice of Yoga." With the help of his readings he tried to move on to actual experience, "and it was on this experience that later on I founded my philosophy, not on ideas themselves."<ref>CWSA vol. 36, ''Autobiographical Writings'', p. 113</ref>

He assumes that the seers of the Upanishads had basically the same approach and gives some details of his vision of the past in a long passage in ''The Renaissance of India''. "The Upanishads have been the acknowledged source of numerous profound philosophies and religions", he writes. Even [[Buddhism]] with all its developments was only a "restatement" from a new standpoint and with fresh terms. And, furthermore, the ideas of the Upanishads "can be rediscovered in much of the thought of [[Pythagoras]] and Plato and form the profound part of [[Neo-platonism]] and [[Gnosticism]] ..." Finally, the larger part of German metaphysics "is little more in substance than an intellectual development of great realities more spiritually seen in this ancient teaching."<ref>CWSA, vol. 20, p. 330</ref> When once he was asked by a disciple whether Plato got some of his ideas from Indian books, he responded that though something of the philosophy of India got through "by means of Pythagoras and others", he assumed that Plato got most of his ideas from intuition.<ref>CWSA vol. 27, ''Letters on Poetry and Art'', p. 520.</ref>

Sri Aurobindo's indebtedness to the Indian tradition also becomes obvious through his placing a large number of quotations from the [[Rig Veda]], the [[Upanishads]] and the [[Bhagavadgita]] at the beginning of the chapters in ''The Life Divine'', showing the connection of his own thought to [[Veda]] and [[Vedanta]].{{sfn|Huchzermeyer|2016|p=10}}{{sfnp|Heehs|2008|p=276}}

The ''Isha Upanishad'' is considered to be one of the most important and more accessible writings of Sri Aurobindo.{{sfnp|Heehs|2008|p=267}} Before he published his final translation and analysis, he wrote ten incomplete commentaries.<ref>CWSA vol. 17, Publisher’s Note</ref> In a key passage he points out that the Brahman or Absolute is both the Stable and the Moving. "We must see it in eternal and immutable Spirit and in all the changing manifestations of universe and relativity."{{sfnp|Heehs|2008|p=267}}<ref>CWSA 17:30</ref> Sri Aurobindo's biographer K.R.S. Iyengar quotes R.S. Mugali as stating that Sri Aurobindo might have obtained in this Upanishad the thought-seed which later grew into ''The Life Divine''.<ref>K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar (1972) ''Sri Aurobindo – A Biography and a history.'' Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram. p. 441.</ref>